California Climate and Health Groups Urge Legislators to Pass Polluter Pays Bills

Dozens of activists gathered outside the state Capitol in the scorching Sacramento sun Monday to make a last push against the industry that’s largely responsible for the climate crisis shattering one heat record after another.

“We’re here today to push back against Big Oil’s influence in Sacramento,” said Woody Little, a campaign lead at Last Chance Alliance, a coalition of more than 900 public health, environmental justice, climate and labor organizations. “We’re here to show that the people have the power.”

The alliance called on legislators to pass a package of climate bills before the legislative session adjourns at the end of the month. The bills, which passed the Assembly in May and are headed for a Senate floor vote, take different approaches to holding oil companies accountable.

Assembly Bill 3233 reaffirms local governments’ authority to regulate oil and gas production. A.B. 1866 safeguards communities from the hazards of pollution from idle oil and gas wells by requiring companies to decommission the wells on a faster schedule. A.B. 2716 penalizes companies $10,000 a month for operating low-producing wells in a Los Angeles County oilfield near the last large undeveloped open space in urban Los Angeles.

“Our communities border oil refineries, gas-fired power plants, industrial farmers, fossil fuel extraction facilities, ports, transportation corridors and other polluting operations,” said Nile Malloy, climate justice director at the California Environmental Justice Alliance, a statewide community-led coalition working to advance environmental and climate justice. “Our health is not for sale and polluters need to be held accountable.”

The climate bills were introduced in the first few months of the year, when the oil industry’s referendum to overturn a new law restricting oil drilling near places people live, work and play was still on the November ballot.

“We thought we were winning with Big Oil withdrawing a challenge on the ballot box to our landmark state law that banned new oil drilling within 3,200 feet (of sensitive sites),” Malloy said, as people behind him held signs and banners reading “Make Polluters Pay!” and “Polluters Pay Up!” Malloy also applauded Richmond’s settlement with Chevron paying the city over a half-billion dollars within the next 10 years for decades of community impacts.

“But we have a lot more work to do,” Malloy said. “The work we are collectively doing around ‘make polluters pay,’ this bill package, is about protecting our local democracy,” he said, referring to court decisions that overturned ordinances to restrict oil and gas operations. 

Local governments, including the city and county of Los Angeles and Monterey County, passed measures in recent years to restrict oil and gas production within their jurisdictions. Monterey County banned “risky” operations like fracking, wastewater injection and new oil well drilling after a majority of voters approved a ballot initiative called Measure Z in 2016. 

A coalition of oil companies led by Chevron quickly challenged the measure, which was invalidated by the Monterey County Superior Court. A group of environmental and health groups, including Protect Monterey County and the Center for Biological Diversity, appealed the ruling, but it was affirmed by the California Court of Appeal in 2021 and again by the California Supreme Court, which ruled last year that state law preempted parts of Measure Z after the groups appealed again.

Both the Los Angeles city and county ordinances were also challenged and are still tied up in the courts. 

The California Supreme Court overturned the will of the people based on one tiny part of the California Code that just isn’t clear enough, said Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo), referring to the court’s invalidation of Measure Z. The ruling created uncertainty and fear for communities across the state, added Addis, whose district includes Monterey.

“A.B. 3233 is the remedy, and will clarify once and for all that local communities do have the power,” said Addis, who introduced the bill. “People do have the power to determine their own future.”

Laura Solorio, a physician who helped appeal the court decisions as president of Protect Monterey County, thanked Assemblymember Addis for carrying “a bill that will affirm the right of communities to make decisions about oil and gas operations that pose grave threats to public health, wildlife and the climate.”

“It’s time we move forward with meaningful changes to affect this climate emergency,” Solorio said, gesturing toward her daughter standing nearby. “What kind of a world will she live in if we don’t continue to try to make it a better place?”

The oil industry is fighting the bills, having spent more than $3.4 million on lobbying and other activities to influence legislators during the first six months of the year, according to records filed with the state.

“These bills threaten to further constrain state oil production and increase dependency on foreign oil, which comes with lower environmental standards, higher transport costs and more greenhouse gas emissions,” Kevin Slagle, spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, which represents the oil and gas industry in five western states including California, told Inside Climate News.

Speakers at the rally, in contrast, argued that it’s critical for legislators to quickly pass the bills in order to protect the Golden State’s most vulnerable residents.

“People across our great state, the majority of whom come from lower income and communities of color, are living the effects of extreme weather,” said Addis, whose district covers 200 miles of California’s central coast, including a region hit by catastrophic flooding last year. “Atmospheric rivers that have flooded our towns and unhoused residents. Landslides that have closed our roads and cut off communities. The worst wildfire smoke in the world, affecting the health of our outdoor workers, and extreme heat that has taken lives. And the people of California know, just as all of us here today know, that it is time for change.”

The rally shows there’s a lot of grassroots support behind these much-needed bills and that lawmakers are ready to prioritize people and the planet over the narrow interests of the oil industry, Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, told Inside Climate News. “But it’s far from a done deal yet, so we’ve got to keep pushing and hopefully get across the finish line this week.”

Jason Pfeifle, a climate campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, urged legislators to address the more than 40,000 wells that sit idle in California. Idle wells leak potentially explosive levels of methane and toxic chemicals that pose serious health threats to people living near them, Pfeifle told the crowd. 

“This week, the Legislature can take an important step forward to address dangerous idle wells by passing Assembly Bill 1866, the Idle Oil Well Cleanup Act,” Pfeifle said. “This bill will help hold oil companies accountable by increasing fees and the number of polluting idle wells that operators must plug each year. This bill will help protect public health and our climate and create jobs.”

Children are growing up at a time when they must skip school—the path to a bright future—to advocate for a fossil free future, said high school senior Anushka Kalyan, a youth organizer with the grassroots climate justice nonprofit 350 Sacramento.

“As young people, we always hear that the future is on our shoulders,” Kalyan said. “But since the climate crisis is right here and right now, I need the adults in power to take responsibility and leadership for our current crisis as well. These three pieces of legislation must be passed so that our future, and yours, is livable, breathable and sustainable.”